Massachusetts Legislative Session Brings Barrage of Disability Proposals

Massachusetts has been somewhat of a sleeping giant when it comes to group disability regulation. There are few MA laws focused specifically on group disability and the state does not require group disability policy forms to be filed for prior approval.

All that may be changing. Last year, the MA Division of Insurance required disability insurers to respond to a comprehensive state survey regarding insurers’ disability products and their existing books of disability business. The stated intent of the survey was to enable the Division “to understand the market for disability income insurance, and also to evaluate the effectiveness of laws and regulations governing Massachusetts’ marketplace for disability income insurance.”

Now we see that this year’s MA legislative session has brought no fewer than 6 proposals that would impose new requirements or prohibitions on disability products: a ban on discretionary authority provisions (SB 427), a prohibition on LTD offsets for Social Security disability benefits (SB 445), a “mental health parity” type requirement (HB 1147), guidelines on what insurers can require of claimants with regard to the frequency and locale of required medical exams (HB 2038) and a couple gender-based bills (SB 414 and SB 413).

While these proposals must still pass through the legislative review and political process at the MA state house, the flurry of proposal activity nonetheless seems to signal that the giant is stirring.